This application is based on an application No. H10-297823 filed in Japan, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a graphical user interface (hereinafter, xe2x80x9cGUIxe2x80x9d) and in particular to a technique for arranging items that can be selected by the user on a display screen.
2. Description of Prior Art
In recent years, there has been a great increase in the number of digital communication apparatuses and household appliances that use a GUI screen as a user interface. This increase has generated a great demand for techniques that can simplify and speed up the generation of GUI screens.
GUI screens are composed of GUI elements that are text items or images, such as buttons or boxes, having special characteristics. These GUI elements include menu items that are subject to selection operations made by the user.
A GUI screen is usually used to present a variety of information to the user and to accept a variety of user requests, with the content of the GUI screen changing in various ways depending on the input made by the user or other factors.
Conventionally, GUI screens are changed by switching between a plurality of GUI screens that are defined in advance, so that the design and development of a changing GUI screen require the advance definition of a plurality of GUI screens. Each GUI screen is defined by specifying the shape, arrangement, and operation of the screen and the shapes, arrangements, and operations of every GUI element that composes the GUI screen in advance. GUI screens thus defined are arranged into a memory, or the like, in the target apparatus as sets of information, with the target apparatus displaying each GUI screen as necessary on a display screen according to a program provided in the apparatus.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H05-2477 teaches a technique for simplifying the design and development of GUI screens. In this technique, the program developer selects the GUI elements that compose the GUI screen from a list using a pointing device, such as a mouse, and arranges the selected GUI elements on the GUI screen. The program developer can change attributes such as the color and size of each GUI element, and can define the processing to be executed when the user operates a GUI element. Accordingly, this technique enables the program developer to construct and adjust GUI screens.
One requirement for effective GUI screens is that it should be easy for users to select their desired menu items. To ensure that users can select a desired menu item with a minimal number of operations even when a large number of menu items are available, GUI screens need to be designed and developed so that the greatest possible number of menu items are simultaneously presented to the user.
However, the number of menu items in a GUI screen can fluctuate. To improve the clarity and operability of GUI screens for different number of menu items when designing GUI screens according to the above conventional technique, a plurality of GUI screens with different arrangements of menu items need to be designed and the selection of GUI screen needs to change in accordance with the number of menu items to be displayed. This means that much time is required to define the GUI screens.
One conventional method for displaying a large number of selectable menu items to the user adds a scroll bar or a display switching button to a GUI screen that is originally designed to display only a predetermined number of menu items. When the user operates the scroll bar or a display switching button, the display content switches to reveal menu items that were not originally displayed. However, the above method has a drawback in that the positions for displaying menu items and the number of menu items that can be displayed at any given time is fixed when the GUI screen is defined. This means that when the number of menu items only slightly exceeds the maximum number that can be displayed at any given time, the user will still have to go to the inconvenience of operating the scroll bar or display switching button in order to select the menu items that are not originally displayed on the GUI screen.
The present invention was conceived in view of the problem described above, and has a primary object of providing a GUI apparatus that can favorably display a plurality of menu items in a GUI screen with a suitable layout for the sizes and total number of the menu items, without requiring the definition of a plurality of GUI screens with different layouts of menu items. In other words, the present invention aims to provide a GUI apparatus that can display a large number of menu items in part or all of a GUI screen.
The primary object of the present invention can be achieved by a GUI (Graphical User Interface) apparatus that displays a plurality of menu items in a predetermined area of a screen, including: a menu item storing unit for storing a plurality of menu items; a layout determining unit for adjusting, for each menu item, a display position of the menu item and a display form that affects a display size of the menu item, so as to determine a layout that enables a large number of menu items to be displayed in a readable fashion in the predetermined area; and a display unit for displaying the plurality of menu items in accordance with the display forms and display positions determined by the layout determining unit.
With the stated construction, the display form and display position of each menu item stored in the menu item storing unit can be adjusted, so that more menu items can be displayed on the GUI screen. This allows the user to view more selectable menu items on the screen at a time, and makes it easy for the user to select his/her desired menu item. The GUI apparatus of the present invention can dynamically arrange the menu items even if the display positions of menu items are not determined in advance, and so can reduce the time taken to design and develop GUI screens.
Here, the layout determining unit may include: a display form determining unit for determining, when it is not possible to arrange every menu item into the predetermined area using predetermined display forms as the display forms for the menu items, the display forms of the menu items so as to reduce the display size of at least one of the menu items; and a display position determining unit for determining the display position of each menu item after the display forms of the menu items have been determined by the display form determining unit so that the menu items do not overlap one another.
By having the stated construction, the GUI apparatus of the present invention can reduce the display forms of menu items when it is not possible to display all of the menu items on the screen using predetermined display forms. By doing so, more menu items can be displayed on the screen. If relatively large display forms are used as the predetermined display forms, all menu items can be favorably displayed with respect to the sizes and the total number of menu items. Such a favorable display makes it easy for the user to select a menu item.
Note that when the menu items are character strings, reduction of the character size, reduction of the margins, and replacement/deletion of parts of the character strings can be performed to reduce the display form of a menu item. In general, it is important for GUI screens to display menu items large enough for the user to discern the meanings of the menu items. While the aim of simultaneously displaying a large number of menu items can conflict with the aim of displaying menu items clearly, reduction of the character size, reduction of the margins, and replacement/deletion of part of the character string reduce the display size of menu items without making them overly difficult to read, so that menu items can be favorably laid out on the screen.
The GUI apparatus may further include a menu item obtaining unit for obtaining the plurality of menu items from outside the GUI apparatus and storing the obtained plurality of menu items into the menu item storing unit.
With the stated construction, the menu items that are to be displayed on the GUI screen can be obtained by receiving them from outside the GUI apparatus. These menu items can then be displayed in a manner that facilitates selection operations by the user. This means that the GUI apparatus of the present invention is suited to cases where a variable number of menu items with different contents are received from outside.
The stated object can also be achieved by a GUI apparatus that displays a plurality of menu items composed of character strings in a predetermined area of a screen, the GUI apparatus including: a menu item storing unit for storing a plurality of menu items; a display form determining unit for determining, when it is not possible to arrange every menu item into the predetermined area with a predetermined character size as part of a display form of each menu item, a display form of each menu item by reducing a character size used in the display form of at least one menu item; a display position determining unit for determining, after the display forms of the menu items have been determined by the display form determining unit, a display position of each menu item so that the menu items do not overlap one another; and a display unit for displaying the plurality of menu items in accordance with the display forms determined by the display form determining unit and the display positions determined by the display position determining unit.
With the stated construction, menu items that are displayed using character strings can be displayed with a suitable character size for the number of menu items and their contents. The resulting display enables the user to recognize a large number of menu items at a glance, and thereby makes it easy for the user to select their desired menu item.
Here, the display form determining unit may reduce the character size with a predetermined size as a minimum value, and when it is still not possible to arrange every menu item into the predetermined area after reducing the character size, may determine the display form of each menu item by reducing a number of characters in a character string of at least one menu item.
The above construction ensures that the size of characters will not be reduced to an extent where the characters become difficult to read. This ensures that the user will still be able to instantly recognize the menu items available when making a selection operation, so that even when the number of menu items increases, the user will still be able to make selection operations easily.
The stated object can be achieved by a GUI apparatus that displays a plurality of menu items composed of character strings in a predetermined area of a screen, the GUI apparatus including: a menu item storing unit for storing a plurality of menu items; a replaceable character string information storage unit for storing at least one replaceable character string associated with a mark that represents the replaceable character string and has a smaller display size than the replaceable character string; a display form determining unit for determining, when it is not possible to arrange every menu item into the predetermined area with a predetermined character size as part of a display form for each menu item, a display form of each menu item by replacing at least one replaceable character string in a character string of at least one menu item with a mark associated with the replaceable character string in the replaceable character string information storage unit; a display position determining unit for determining, after the display forms of the menu items have been determined by the display form determining unit, the display position of each menu item so that the menu items do not overlap one another; and a display unit for displaying the plurality of menu items in accordance with the display forms determined by the display form determining unit and the display positions determined by the display position determining unit.
The above construction reduces the number of characters in character strings by replacing certain character strings in menu items with abbreviated character strings. This. means that the menu items can be displayed in a smaller area, and so allows more menu items to be simultaneously displayed. The user will therefore be able to view a larger number of menu items at a glance, which improves the ease with which the user can perform selection operations.
The stated object may also be achieved by a GUI apparatus that displays a plurality of menu items composed of character strings in a predetermined area of a screen, the GUI apparatus including: a menu item storing unit for storing a plurality of menu items; a deletable character string information storing unit for storing deletable character strings; a display form determining unit for determining, when it is not possible to arrange every menu item into the predetermined area with a predetermined character size as part of a display form for each menu item, a display form of each menu item by deleting at least one deletable character string given in the deletable character string information storing unit from a character string of at least one menu item; a display position determining unit for determining, after the display forms of the menu items have been determined by the display form determining unit, the display position of each menu item so that the menu items do not overlap one another; and a display unit for displaying the plurality of menu items in accordance with the display forms determined by the display form determining unit and the display positions determined by the display position determining unit.
With the stated construction, character strings that may be deleted from menu items without affecting the meanings of the menu items are stored in advance as deletable character strings. By deleting deletable character strings from menu items, the menu items can be displayed in a smaller space. This in turn allows more menu items to be simultaneously displayed to the user, and so makes selection operations easier.
The stated object can also be achieved by a GUI apparatus that displays a plurality of menu items composed of character strings in a two-dimensional grid in a predetermined area of a screen, the GUI apparatus including: a menu item storing unit for storing a plurality of menu items; a display form determining unit for determining, when it is not possible to arrange every menu item into the predetermined area using a display form where rectangular areas of an equal size are used to enclose a character string of each menu item, a display form of each menu item by setting a rectangular area of each menu item that is likely to be arranged into a same column in the two-dimensional grid at a smallest size that is still capable of accommodating any of the character strings of the menu items in the column; a display position determining unit for determining, after the display forms of the menu items have been determined by the display form determining unit, the display position of each menu item in the two-dimensional grid so that the menu items do not overlap one another; and a display unit for displaying the plurality of menu items in accordance with the display forms determined by the display form determining unit and the display positions determined by the display position determining unit.
The above construction displays the menu items laid out into rows and columns, which makes the menu items easier to see. As the width of each column only needs to be set at the width of the widest menu item in the column, a larger number of menu items can be simultaneously displayed, which makes selection operations easier for users.
As described above, the present invention provides a technology for favorably displaying a variable number of menu items of changeable contents on an operation display. This technology can be applied to all kinds of devices that have a user interface, and has the important technical effect of reducing the amount of time and effort required to design and develop user interfaces.